About Us

Welcome to THE MERGER EXPERT!

Since 1983, I have been actively involved in successfully completing merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions of privately-held businesses. The Merger Expert is exclusively a full-time Sell-Side M&A firm, not a consulting firm doing M&A on the side.

We do one thing and only one thing; successfully sell businesses 24/7. That alone makes us different than 99.99% of our competitors.

If you landed here you probably have a few questions. One of them is, “How do I separate the good M&A guys from the bad ones?”

Don’t be confused by my “competitors” who say they do mergers and acquisitions.

Just ask them two questions. #1: Do they do consulting? If they do, go somewhere else in a hurry. They really are not a full-time mergers & acquisitions firm. They are a consulting company in disguise. #2: Do they do “buy-side” transactions? If they do, they are dedicated to transactions, and not to getting you the highest price possible.

Beware of anyone who states “they have buyers”; in fact, run!

This is an over-used bait and switch tactic in our industry. If they did “have buyers,” you would have already been acquired, and they would have collected their fee from the buyer. If I had buyers, they would pay the lowest possible price, have one-to-one negotiations with you, and not want to bid against the real buyers willing to overpay you for the years of sweat you put into your business.

What makes me an expert?

I have been doing this since 1983. For the first 12 years of my professional career, I was employed by large corporations to perform business analysis, valuations, and strategic analysis of potential companies to be acquired. I was well-paid to beat down prices! What I really learned during these 12 years was the process of negotiating the price lower yet.

I witnessed first hand how larger companies wear down sellers, and the ill-preparedness of the sellers and their representatives. I knew from our side of the transaction;

Why we wanted to do the deal,

What would break the deal (besides price),

What questions to ask (and in what order),

What information was mandatory (full due diligence), and

What information would lower the price at each meeting.

By the end of my tenure, working directly for acquiring companies, I had made a handful of CEO’s very wealthy as their stock prices rose.

From hands-on experience, I can tell you sellers were ignorant enough about the process to allow one-on-one negotiations (vs. a full M&A team), and/or they were so grossly under-represented, in more cases than I could count. I just had to quit my cushy corporate job and go out there and do something to help them.

Did you know that 90% of businesses for sale do not sell?

The number one reason is that the sellers are trying to do it themselves. Given those odds, why would you even consider selling your business yourself? Selling your business is complicated, time consuming, and labor intensive. It usually represents your largest personal asset. You are going up against professionals who, as you can imagine, really don’t have your best interests in mind. Since I was one of them I know. Why not put our teams experience to work on your side!

With THE MERGER EXPERT your M&A team specializes in representing you in selling privately-owned businesses with revenues of $5-75 million, and we only represent sellers.Our clients are business owners like you who want a skilled professional team to handle the marketing, screening of multiple buyers, and the complex intricacies of the transaction. This allows you to concentrate on the ongoing operations of your business, preventing it from suffering during the sales process, which ultimately lowers the price. We work closely and confidentially with our clients to provide a premium exit value and retirement strategy.

My background and experience is quite unique in the industry. With ten years of accounting and equity analysis & evaluation behind me beginning in 1983, while employed by buyers, I concentrated on and was highly successful at driving down prices paid to sellers until 1995.

If you don’t have a selling system of your own when you are face-to-face with a buyer, you will unknowingly default to his system. – David Sandler

In January 1995, I founded The Merger Expert with the purpose of representing sellers, and utilizing my years of experience and knowledge. I began by designing above industry norm marketing documents, and implemented a very repeatable structured process that has resulted in multi-buyer bidding wars and achieved higher than industry average selling prices. Additionally, we arm sellers with a stronger cohesive working team including, but not limited to, M&A professionals, technical writers, CPA’s, attorneys, and wealth management professionals.

That is why, on deals greater than $5 million, there is a $1 million dollar difference between the last 2 offers!

Your success is in part because we know what is coming next, and we share this with our clients so they are fully prepared. After all, I once was doing my counterparts job, so you might as well take advantage and profit from it.

We Specialize in:

Representing Sellers Only

Document Preparation

Strategic Marketing

Multiple Offers

Negotiation

Due Diligence

Closing Document-Exhibit Preparation

Transaction Closure

Whether you are a sole proprietor or have multiple shareholders with one or more retiring, we invite you to learn more about the selling process, and how to obtain the highest possible price. Even if you do not use our services, I feel you should be making an informed decision about what is usually your largest asset, your company.

Give us a call at (503) 746-6736 to schedule a one-time free no obligation, no sales consultation to learn how you can earn more.